It’s holiday season, and a New Year is about to begin. Where and how are you planning to bid farewell to 2009 and embrace 2010? We’ve gathered some unique and entertaining New Year’s Eve traditions from around the globe to share with you. Let’s journey to visit these exotic destinations!
In Brazil on December 31, millions of sea and moonlight worshippers visit beaches to enjoy the merriment and spectacular midnight fireworks displays. They dress in white, dance samba, and make offerings of flowers and gifts to Iemanjá, Goddess of Water in the Umbanda religion. Similar to Louisianans (who eat black-eyed peas), tradition influences Brazilians to consume lentils and rice on New Year’s Day because they are believed to bring prosperity and good fortune.
Venezuelan families get together to enjoy a specially prepared meal and write letters filled with New Year’s wishes and intentions. In order to ensure complete secrecy, the papers are burned. More interesting is that as the clock strikes midnight, people retrieve their suitcases and walk out of the house declaring their intentions of safe and abundant travels for the coming year. Venezuelan and other Latin American women wear yellow (for money) or red or pink (symbolic of passion) panties to welcome the New Year while children receive gifts.
Spain enjoys a boisterous party similar to the ball dropping in New York City. If not at home with friends and family, many celebrants gather at the Plaza del Sol in Madrid on Noche Vieja (Dec. 31) to drink and devour 12 grapes during the countdown: each one representing each month in the year ahead. This custom is believed to guarantee sweetness and prosperity.
Italians gather in a familial way while keeping in mind that romance is essential to maintaining a healthy and satisfying life. It is customary for Italian women to kick off the year in bright red underwear. Lingerie shops proudly display the most attention-getting garb to remind one and all how necessary these items are. Parties and fireworks are also enjoyed throughout the cities of this saucy country. The best are found in Naples – some Napolitanos toss their old belongings out windows, a tradition called Lo Sciuscio (the dirty), while groups of amateur musicians (mainly children) go from house to house playing and singing on New Year’s Eve.
South Africans party hard in clubs and bars throughout New Year’s Eve, most often along shore towns like Durban and Cape Town. On New Year’s Day they attend the ‘Cape Town Minstrel Carnival’ parades: huge colorful affairs with grand costumes, enthusiastic marching bands, boisterous singing and body-grooving dancing.
Church bells throughout Austria ring in the New Year at the stroke of midnight. People dance their way through the streets to the tune of the famous Danube waltz.
Panamanians burn effigies, called muñecos, of popular politicians, actors, and cultural icons to banish evil spirits and begin the year anew. Voodoo dolls, anyone?
Scots practice what is called ‘first footing,’ which declares that the first guest to enter a home in the New Year should cross the threshold bearing a gift – preferably whiskey.
While the Dutch and Argentines partake in distilled spirits as much as the rest of the world, they add chair jumping to the disorienting experience. This is to rid them of negative energies and begin the year with a clean slate.
In the Philippines, it is customary to dress, eat, and surround oneself with round circular images. It is common for revelers to wear polka dots, eat round foods such as cookies and oranges, and decorate with circles which represent coins and wealth.
If any of these traditions represent how you will live the upcoming year, we suggest you choose something fun and go with it! Wherever and however in the world you choose to embrace 2010, we hope it brings you much health, joy, love and prosperity.
Happy New Year, Feliz Año Nuevo, Bonne Année, Buon Capo d’Anno, Gutes Neues Jahr, Feliz ano novo, Hauoli Makahiki Hou!!!!
